Who We Are

Marcy Darnovsky, PhD, speaks and writes widely on the politics of human biotechnology, focusing on their social justice and public interest implications. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, Nature, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Harvard Law and Policy Review, Democracy, New Scientist and many others. She has appeared on dozens of television, radio, and online news shows and has been interviewed and cited in hundreds of news and magazine articles. She has worked as an organizer and advocate in a range of environmental and progressive political movements, and taught courses at Sonoma State University and at California State University East Bay. Her PhD is from the History of Consciousness program at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Katie Hasson, PhD, writes, speaks, researches, and teaches about the social and political aspects of human genetic and reproductive technologies. Katie earned her PhD in Sociology with a Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender, and Sexuality from the University of California, Berkeley, and was previously Assistant Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at the University of Southern California.

Lavanya Girish is a sophomore at the University of California, Berkeley, pursuing a degree in Microbial Biology and minoring in Data Science. Through CGS, she hopes to explore emerging data-driven technologies and their ethical implications in human biology and medicine. She is particularly interested in how genetic and biomedical advancements impact underrepresented communities and how policy can ensure equitable access to healthcare. After completing her undergraduate studies, she plans to pursue a master’s degree in public health or bioinformatics with the goal of contributing to inclusive and impactful scientific innovation.

Richard Hayes, PhD, was most recently visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley College of Natural Resources / Energy and Resources Group. He was founding executive director of the Center for Genetics and Society, serving in that role from 2001 through 2012. He has written and spoken widely concerning democratic governance of science and technology, economic inequality, and the need for social oversight of the new human biotechnologies. He has been active in social and political organizing since his student days at UC Berkeley in the 1960s. In the 1970s, he worked as a community organizer with a wide range of progressive organizations. In the early 1980s he served as executive director of the San Francisco Democratic Party and ran the electoral field operations for the late Congressmembers Phillip Burton and Sala Burton. From 1983 through 1992, he served on the national staff of the Sierra Club, first as assistant political director and then as national director of volunteer development. In the early 1990s, he was chair of the Sierra Club's Global Warming Campaign Committee. In 1999. he began the work that lead to the creation of the Center for Genetics and Society in 2001. He holds a PhD in Energy and Resources from the University of California, Berkeley. His current website is For A Human Future.